Orlando Magic Likely Canceling Morning Shootarounds This Season

Head coach Jacque Vaughn has changed his team’s morning routine this preseason, doing away with early shootarounds in an effort to keep his players fresh and attentive. The Orlando Magic are instead holding afternoon shootarounds and walkthroughs in hotel ballrooms during road trips. Per the Orlando Sentinel: “Vaughn wouldn’t discuss his specific reasoning prior to Sunday night’s exhibition against the Detroit Pistons, but some other teams — typically teams loaded with experienced players — in recent years have shifted away from morning shootarounds. ‘Have I made a conscious effort to not have some shootarounds? Yes,’ Vaughn said. ‘And will that continue throughout the course of the year? Probably yes. I took a scope of all the things that we did last year — what I liked, what I didn’t like, what I thought was efficient. And that’s what I’m about. I’m about being efficient. I don’t have to stroke my own ego and check boxes off [a practice plan]. I just don’t. I don’t have to do what other coaches do. I’m fine with doing what I think is best for my team.’ NBA teams almost never hold morning shootarounds on the second day of a back-to-back, and the Magic didn’t hold morning shootarounds on those days last season, either. This preseason, even on the road, Magic players have had the option to go to the gym in the morning to put up shots.”